Taiwanese judoka Lee Kai-lin (李凱琳) won Taiwan’s first medal at the London Paralympics on Thursday by reaching the final of the women’s under-48kg weight class.
The visually impaired Lee, who is currently ranked No. 1 in the world in her weight division, won silver after losing to Carmen Brussig of Germany in the event’s gold-medal bout.
The 35-year-old Brussig scored a waza-ari against her Taiwanese opponent, who was only able to manage a yuko.
Photo: CNA
In judo, an ippon is the highest score given for a throw or pin and it immediately ends a match. A waza-ari is the second highest score in the three-tier scoring system and it trumps a yuko, no matter how many are scored.
During their previous encounter at the International Blind Sport Federation (IBSA) world championships in Turkey last year, Lee defeated Brussig to win gold.
In her Paralympics debut this year, the 20-year-old Lee frustrated Solene Laclau of France to advance to the semi-finals and then moved on to the gold medal encounter by defeating 30-year-old Karla Ferreira Cardoso of Brazil by two yuko to one.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) and Sports Affairs Council Minister Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡) sent congratulatory messages to Lee shortly after her success.
Lee, who suffers from congenital optic nerve atrophy and has very weak vision, took up judo when she was in second grade at school.
She said her grandfather started the family tradition of learning judo because many family members suffered from the eye disease and he thought mastering judo could be a way for them to protect themselves.
In high school, Lee’s coach refused to give her “special treatment” and made her train with other athletes who were not visually impaired.
That method toughened her and played a role in helping her win the gold medal at the IBSA judo world championships in Turkey in 2010.
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
RSS